This year’s Ambassador’s Dinner was a particularly festive event. 2017 is the year that the German Australian Business Council (GABC) celebrates 20 years of connecting Germany and Australia.

Held on the 12th of September at the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof Hotel in central Frankfurt, we were honoured to welcome both our Co-Patrons, Her Excellency Lynette Wood, Australian Ambassador to Germany, as well as Richard Leather, Consul General and Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner at the Australian Consulate-General in Frankfurt. We also had the pleasure of the company of The Honourable Martin Hamilton-Smith MP, South Australian Minister for Investment and Trade, Defence Industries and Veterans’ Affairs as well as many other distinguished guests both at Federal and State level.

Almost 120 international guests spanning across the business, political, educational and cultural spheres took part in this year’s Ambassador’s Dinner.

The evening debuted with a networking pre-dinner cocktail. The diversity, generous curiosity and open-mindedness of our guests allowed for the evening to immediately start off in great spirits, with many new contacts being established.

Once in the dining room, GABC Chair, Sabine Pittrof, welcomed all guests and took us through the past 20 years since the creation of GABC: an incredibly rich programme of events and business opportunities, to say the least!

Following, for the first time as our Patron, the Australian Ambassador to Germany, H.E. Lynette Wood, addressed our guests, highlighting the current business and political climate between Australia and Germany.

We also heard from the South Australian Minister, who touched upon numerous topics relevant to German Australian business relations, including those of innovation and renewable energy.

On a different note, Markus Svensson, European General Manager for Qantas, focused on the outlook of the airline industry, briefly outlining the plans for non-stop flight to Europe.

Our Master of Ceremony for the event, Evangelos Kotsopoulos, CEO Continental Europe for Sonic Healthcare and GABC Board Member, led us nicely throughout the entire evening.

The evening was concluded by an abundant business card draw as a way to celebrate our 20 year anniversary, followed by closing remarks and a word of thank you by Sabine Pittrof.

Events such as the Ambassador’s Dinner would not be possible without the generous support of our Corporate Members and sponsors. Sonic Healthcare (Gold Sponsor), State of South Australia (Gold Sponsor), Qantas (Gold Sponsor), Squire Patton Boggs (Silver Sponsor) and the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) (Silver Sponsor) supported the 2017 Ambassador’s Dinner. The German Australian Business Council would like to warmly thank our sponsors for their kind support.

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